Making Electrical Connections Water Tight

as long as you don't mind the extra time it takes.. my honey uses electrical tape on every connection .. alternates going straight around the connection and criss crossing it over the plug.. this way the water will stay out .. even with 4 feet of snow piled on... and melted.. every single connection was still good and we never had a short..

yes it is a total pain to tear down (last year it was almost spring before we could see the wires out of the snow) takes extra time but insures your connections will be water tight

I know what you mean, but we have seem a lot of discussions around the lighting community about the use a tape. Many people are against it stating it does not allow the moisture to run off, and actually makes it corrode faster.

I religiously taped every connection for years. After hearing about this, I have stopped, and haven't had any problems. I'm in Kansas where we can get rain/sleet/snow during the season. Never had any problems.

my honey reminded me the first 2 years we decorated.. we kept blowing fuses left and right in the cords.. I remember him going crazy trying to fix each fuse in the plugs .. and he believes the heat from the cord is drying out any condensation that might be inside the tape .. we have been using the same extension cords for 7 years now .. never see any corrosion on them.. and we decorate heavy for Halloween as well.. same cords out from Aug - Jan or later depending on the snow that yearedited by Allison Alerine on 8/4/2011

Wow, well there ya go. I can admit it when I am wrong. Like I said, I used to use several rolls of tape myself each year. I have always been lucky, I have never had "major" electrical problem.

The only problem I have EVER had was if I was expecting several friends to drive by from more than 30 miles away, and I was not going to be home, the power would ALWAYS trip. No show until I got home and restarted it. This season I will be trying an off version of PC ANYwhere to see if I can stop that problem as well.

not saying you are wrong.. I am no expert.. just going by what we went through.. my honey had a bag of different fuses and you know what reading those little numbers can be like.. and with hands freezing cold trying to fix problems.. UGH.. what a mess it was.. he is not the type to just give up either...

can't wait to hear how your pc anywhere goes.. it's a great idea.. I would feel terrible if that happened to my buddies.. made me crazy last year when I was not able to update my controllers and we were late getting the lights on.. never mind have that happen and disappoint friends .. I have a backup computer with everything installed on it.. just in case.. it's old but it works

yeah we lost of few buried under there.. and we string icicle lights across the front by the curb.. those almost tore completely off the posts they were attached to.. and he always puts that plastic green covered wire as a guide wire.. and zips the lights to it.. the wire snapped with the weight pulling it down.. but amazingly enough most of our props were ok.. even a 2 foot snowman in a box down by the street.. I was shocked so much survived under there

I had a wind storm with gusts over 50 mph 2 years ago. The lights on the roof stood strong, the candy cane's largely did well. Lost 2 to a limb falling on them. 6' tall snowman, was down, and tried to flee the property, the extension cord was the only thing that kept him from leaving.knocked the count down timer down, otherwise everything did great.

Mr snowman didn't get put out last year, but I was considering using him this upcoming year. Switched thoughts and it opened 2 channels. I have been tinkering with how to hold him still, without losing the visual look from him. I'm going to try guy wire him, and a fixed cable from the eave of the house from above. I doubt I will ever see another storm like the past, but I hate that it affected the display more than anything.

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